Public defender Kathleen Riley has her work cut out when defending a deaf-mute homeless man who has been charged with murder. A web of lies seem to be surrounding the case, but can everything be worked out in enough time?
I had never even heard of this film before watching it, which is sometimes a very good thing in all honesty. I have enjoyed watching films I had no idea about in recent weeks on Amazon Video and this one popped up due to watching some courtroom dramas, which is the exact reason I decided to watch this. I love courtroom drama films and will always give them a chance.
Kathleen must try to get information from Carl Wayne Anderson and prove that he is not guilty. This was always going to be a tough task when he could not speak and it was also found out he was deaf. Eventually communicating through writing she gets to know him a little bit better. Eddie Sanger who is on the jury is a congressional advisor and gets more involved than he should be with very good reason. It was always going to be interesting to know whether or not they would find out in time who actually committed the murder. Kathleen a very strong female character which is not bad from a film released 31 years ago.
The twist at the end was pretty good in all honesty and more than worth the wait, I wasn't fully sure how it was going to end. I knew who was going to be involved but it left it open to who it could have been, which was a very good thing considering the film wasn't startling over all. Can Judge's be trusted? That is something that it makes us think about when it comes to Matthew Bishop Helms who is in charge of this trial.
Cher was taking on the leading role which was something else I thought would be interesting to see her as a lawyer, let's face it she really does pull out all of the stops and I thought this was a very strong performance. Liam Neeson considering he does not speak showed a strong acting performance given the limited screen time in one of his early film roles. Dennis Quaid was also pretty impressive as I have not seen a huge amount of his films over the years and he was strong enough in this one. I did enjoy John Mahoney as the Judge, considering I have been watching a lot of Frazier again over the past few months. Always great to see an actor you know so well from a tv series in films!
